Deep Horizon Blog

January 21, 2007

DIVING WITH JOHN SULLIVAN

Filed under: Cave Diving — Steve @ 7:35 pm

DIVING WITH JOHN SULLIVAN
 

 I had the honor and pleasure of teaching the NACD/PSAI Full Cave course for John Sullivan of Valley Village, California.  John was staying at the new all-inclusive resort SIRINIS located two kilometers north of Akumal with his beautiful wife Kristin and his two young daughters.  John is a Media Producer currently working on a film documentary titled SCIENCE & RELIGON.  John is considering a future project documenting the underwater cave rescue of Gustavo Badillo in the mountains of western Venezuela performed by John Orlowski and myself.
 

FRIDAY, JANUARY 12, 2007
 

I picked up John at 8:00 A.M. at the Sirinis resort and we traveled south to Tulum to dive CENOTE MAYAN BLUE (Escondido).  John was fully equipped and his previous training was with NACD/TDI Cave Instructor Alex Alverez.   We did a complete equipment review and a thorough discussion on jumps and gaps using land drills and props.   We performed two dives doing a few open water drills, diving the A tunnel and jumping to the Death Arrow passage and the Dead Zone performing our first lost line drill.  John’s buoyancy control, trim and techniques were superb!  That late afternoon we dived SISTEMA XANAAN HA diving the upstream passage making one jump and negotiating one T intersection and performing our second lost line drill and our first touch contact/share gas drill on our return swim to the exit.
 

That Friday night I drove out to CENOTE THUS KUPAXA to visit and socialize with NACD Cave Instructor Thorsten (Toddy) Walde who was camping at the cenote site with his friends Uwe Schwedler, Manfred Reiser and Patrick Tschanz.  They are on a twenty day exploration expedition with the hopes of connecting SISTEMA TUHS KUPAXA with SISTEMA KOOX BALAM or SISTEMA SAC XIQUIN.  I brought with me a healthy supply of cervezas to share with these friends as we sat around the camp fire hearing their stories of their cave dives and Toddy’s dive store in Sardinia, Italy called PRODIVE.  We had a great time!
 

SATURDAY, JANUARY 13, 2007
 

For our morning dive John and I dived CENOTE NAHARON (CRISTAL) swimming upstream the main line to CHAC´s Room and beyond.  We performed our third touch-contact/share gas drill on the return swim and using our back-up lights.   That afternoon, after lunch at a restaurant on Tulum Beach, we made one cave dive upstream at the CENOTE CARWASH to the Room of Tears and beyond into the ALUXE area.  On our return swim we performed another touch-contact/share gas drill through a minor restriction and our third lost line drill.  We continued on our close valves, switch regulator drills during our safety stop.
 

 

SUNDAY, JANUARY 14, 2007
 

We dived at the CENOTE MINOTAURO traversing to Cenote Estrella three jumps and performing two touch-contact/share gas drills through three minor restrictions.  For lunch, we had the world famous 1/3 lb. cheeseburgers at Richard´s Steakhouse Restaurant at the Puerto Aventuras marina.   That afternoon we dived at SISTEME TAJ MAHAL performing a dive to the Chinese Garden Room and loft area.   John’s diving performance with all his skills was excellent.
 

MONDAY, JANUARY 15, 2007                                                                      
 

For John’s graduation dive, we dived at the GRAND CENOTE traversing to Cenote Bosh Chen involving four jumps along the route.  The water was really hazy in the Bosh Chen area as the fallout from the digging at Cenote Calimba made it presence. John was completely thrilled with the final dive of the Full Cave course.
 

 THURSDAY, JANUARY 18, 2007
 

John was planning diving on Tuesday but his ears were giving him problems.  I took John to a pharmacy in Puerto Aventuras to get him this special solution to help kill the bacteria infection in the ear canal.   It was five drops every eight hours and it immediately began to help.
 

On Wednesday, January 17th Bruce O’Connell flew in from Charlotte, North Carolina as I will guiding him and Denis Burlage of New Jersey (Denis flew in on Thursday, January 18th) until January 30th.  
 

For Thursday, John, Bruce and I dived CENOTE TORTUGA.  We dropped off Bruce in Puerto Aventuras so he could drive his rental car to the airport to pick up Denis.  John and I dived at CENOTE CHAC MOOL and swam downstream to the Monster Room to view the giant drip stone.  I showed John a fossilized barrel sponge embedded into a large section of limestone rock. It was a great dive for John’s final day of diving this vacation trip.    
 

FRIDAY, JANUARY 19, 2007
 

For this first day diving with Denis Burlage and Bruce O’Connell, we began at 8:30 a.m.  We stopped at the SIRINIS RESORT for me to return John’s equipment from my bodega room and collect all his paperwork and files from his full cave course.   We proceeded onto to Tulum and made our first dive at CENOTE CHAN HOL diving the main line.  We had lunch at the LOL HA Outdoor grill on Akumal Beach and we each had a great Philly Cheese steak sandwich with fries.  We walked over to the Akumal dive Shop to visit Pablo Diaz for a few minutes and then we made our afternoon dive at CENOTE CHAC MOOL swimming upstream to the 1900 foot/575 meters area.  Both Denis and Bruce were impressed with the size of the passage.  It was a great first day of diving as a team!
 

Friday night I had a great pizza and refreshments at LEO´s PIZZA with Lena Ericson and Connie Lore.  Connie was finished with her Russian group who had departed back home the day before.   Lena had one more day of diving with the Horst Schmid Austrain group.  Connie returns on February 6th as she will have a group of eight cave divers from Canada, all multiple repeaters from previous trips.                                                                                         

MIA & MICHAEL INTERRANTE

Filed under: Cave Diving — Steve @ 7:30 pm

MIA & MICHAEL INTERRANTE

 During the week of January 7th – 12th, 2007, Nancy DeRosa asked me if I could teach a NACD/PSAI FULL CAVE course for a couple who own the KINGS COUNTY DIVERS CORP in Brooklyn, New York.  They are Mia and Michael Interrante who are open water Instructors & Trainers representing several Open Water agencies with their personal emphasis affiliated with the SSI Scuba program.  They have owned the Kings County Divers business for five years purchasing the business from the previous owner-friend and having worked for the business several years prior to their ownership.  We met on Saturday evening, January 6th at their one bedroom, complete condo at Villas DeRosa and to become acquainted, complete all the necessary paperwork and review my orientation for the Full Cave course.   They took their IANTD Cavern & Intro to Cave course the previous year from Marco Wagner (nephew of Gunnar Wagner) while staying at Villas DeRosa.  Once I became more aware of their diving history, I had a good feeling this would be an enjoyable class to teach.
 

 SUNDAY, JANUARY 7, 2007.
 

We decided we would meet at 7:30 a.m. Sunday morning as Villas DeRosa was booked solid with divers and people.  Connie Lore had a group of eighteen Russians for two weeks (Joey P. will love this) who arrived the day before.
We set up our equipment as Mia & Michael were superbly prepared and properly configured their personal equipment, mostly ScubaPro.  We reviewed my ten principles and the foundation of common sense application with the gear used for the underwater cave environment.  We loaded my truck and we drove to Cenote Chickin Ha.  We arrived with no snorkelers or divers at the site.  I walked Mia & Michael around the entire area giving them a history of the cenote and exploration along with a review of the cave environment.  We placed our equipment on the palapa table and we discussed my presentation using my props with lines laid out involving jumps, gaps, permanent intersections, communication, protocol, procedures and everything involved with this aspect of safe cave diving.   After our review of communication, fin kicks, matching, safety drill, gas management we performed some skills in the open water and two dives upstream SISTEMA X´TABAY involving jumps to offshoot lines.   Our next session in the afternoon was a downstream dive from CENOTE CHICKIN HA traversing to CENOTE ZACIL involving one permanent ¨T¨ intersection and one jump.  All three of us were very impressed with the new white line as it laid out perfectly in the cave passages.
 

MONDAY, JANUARY 8, 2007
 

This day we made two dives at the CENOTE CALAVERA or known as THE TEMPLE of DOOM.  We arrived first but shortly afterward the Russian cave divers and cenote divers from Villas Derosa.  We dived the ¨Coliseum Room¨ exiting through ¨The Canyons¨ and we made a dive to the ¨Hall of Giants¨ and back.  The purpose of these dives was correctly marking permanent intersections, referencing, protocol and various standard skills.
 

TUESDAY, JANUARY 9, 2007
 

The morning session we dived SISTEMA TUHS KUPAXA.  This was a WOW dive as we negotiated one permanent ¨T¨ intersection.  This was also the arrival of NACD Instructor Thorsten (Toddy) Walde who owns the PROTEC dive store in Sardenia, Italy.  He and three friends were beginning the first day of a planned 20 day expedition.  I promised them I would come out Friday night to visit and bring them refreshments.  That afternoon we dived SISTEMA XANAAN HA performing a short downstream dive negotiating a permanent ¨T¨ intersection and much halocline.  Out second dive was upstream involving one jump and one ¨T¨ intersection and surfacing in an air dome.  On our return swim we practiced our second ¨lost line¨ drills and our second share air/touch-contact drills.  Mia and Michael’s hovering and trim through the passage ways were superb.
 

 WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 10, 2007
 

Our morning dive was at the GRAND CENOTE diving the Cuzan Nah area involving six reels and passing two other cave diving teams.  Our afternoon dive was the CENOTE CARWASH as we performed an upstream dive to the ¨Room of Tears¨ and beyond. We reached the third ¨T¨ intersection in the basement area and our return swim we practiced our final touch contact/share gas drill through a minor restriction (five in total) and our third and final ¨lost line¨ drill.  In addition, Mia and Michael easily completed all timed open and close valves drills.  Their performance was outstanding.
 

It was a great honor and pleasure to teach the NACD/PSAI Full Cave course for Mia and Michael Interrante.
 

 THURSDAY, JANUARY 11, 2007
 

We continued our cave diving as we traveled south of Tulum on Highway 307 and dived the outstanding cave CENOTE CHAN HOL.  Mia and Michael were very impressed with this WOW cave.  Afterward, we stopped at the famous OSCAR & LALO Beach Restaurant located on Soliman Bay for some outstanding Pollo Fajitas and refreshments.  This is one of the last remaining places in the Riviera Maya not surrounded by a resort or condominiums.  It provides an excellent tropical island ambiance.  When we returned to Villas Derosa I was given an outstanding cash tip, a new Scubapro Frameless mask, and a yellow fellow Manta second stage necklace.  It was a very heartwarming reward from them.  Thank you!
 

 

FOOTNOTES:
 

Connie Lore’s group of eighteen included six cave divers that were led by NSS-CDS Cave Instructor MAXIM KUZNETSOV.  Also joining the group was NSS-CDS Cave Instructor REGGIE ROSS of Gainesville, Florida and his friend BILL WILLIAMS of Lake City, Florida.
 

NACD/NSS-CDS Cave Instructor HORST SCHMID of Austria was staying at Villas DeRosa with a group of ten divers.  His partner IANTD Cave Instructor ARNOLD GERSTL was part of the group along with his wife.  Horst and Arnold own the UMEX Tauchsport diving business.  They were teaching a cave diving course for four students and had four certified cave divers diving on their own.
 

At CENOTE CALIMBA all the rock debris that had collapsed from the monster hole dug is now cleared out.  The entry/exit into Sistema Sac Aktun is now available.  This is clearly an act of ignorance that destroyed the natural beauty of this particular cenote.
 

 
 

 

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